Meeting Updates For 2016
There have been some changes to our local WordPress user group in the last year and I want to make sure that everyone was in the loop on what has been happening.
First off, there will be no meeting in May. Class is already out at MCTC and we aren’t able to meet on campus over the summer. I know the summer is a busy time with family, vacations, and of course, WordCamps, but I would like to get together for at least one meeting over the summer in a different location!
WordPress Foundation
This year we transferred ownership of the meetup.com account to the WordPress Foundation. This means that the Foundation now pays the Meetup dues for our use group and helps out with WordPress swag and sharing our videos on wordpress.tv.
This also means that the mission of our user group has been expanded and hopefully improved. The goal of the Foundation is to encourage “face-to-face events on a regular basis, anything that brings together 2 or more people to share their WordPress experiences counts — there’s no minimum number of attendees or required format.”
Meeting Locations
In the Twin Cities we have a large user group that isn’t fragmented into smaller groups based on location or experience with WordPress like some larger cities. I think this is a big advantage for connecting different members together and keeping everyone in the loop, but it does present some challenges. With a large metro area, it is impossible to find one location that works for everyone, and our wide range of users covers everyone from brand new bloggers to experienced WordPress developers!
With our expanded mission from the Foundation, we have the opportunity to have a variety of meetings of different sizes and formats throughout the metro. I hope that eventually this will allow us to accommodate more WordPress users in more locations.
If you have a meetup.com account and you are a member of the MSP WP user group you should see a link on our Meetup page to “Schedule a new Meetup”.
We will being meeting at MCTC in Minneapolis again starting in the fall, if anyone has any ideas on locations that we could use for meetings in the summer please let me know.
Formats & Topics
Our user group is volunteer driven and if you see a need for a meeting in your area, or a topic that you would like to meet or talk about, please contribute!
The meetup.com account is now intended for meetings of all sizes and subjects, so don’t hesitate to add a meeting for six people to meetup for coffee and chat about theming, or ten to meet at a library to talk about blogging. I just encourage you to follow the Foundation guidelines for meetings, these should be about education and not promotion, and to be clear in your post about the subject and size of the meeting.
We have a list of meeting topics that we brainstormed earlier this that we can draw from for future meetings but this list is by no means exhaustive.
If you have any questions or or you need assistance setting up a meeting please let me know through any of our regular user group channels, or email me directly. I’d be happy to add you as a contributor on the blog, or help you get the word out about your meeting via our Twitter account.